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Jeff Cook wins the Empire Super Sprints feature
By : Martin Bélanger
Cantley, PQ – Friday, July 13, 2007 – When the Empire Super Sprints are in town, a lot of people come and see them. It was again the case last night when a capacity crowd showed up despite some bad weather during the day. The fans gathered at Edelweiss last night had a bang for their buck.
In the 25 lap feature, Tommy Wickham grabbed the lead over the field. The first seventeen laps were done really quickly and the crowd could see many great moves from the drivers. The first caution came on lap 17. On the restart, Wickham kept the lead but Jeff Cook, who started fifth, was now on the back bumper of Wickham. On lap 20, Cook took the lead from Wickham by a great outside move on him. Cook never looked back to win his first feature of the season with the ESS gang. Wickham finishes second, Mikael Parent third, followed by Mike Stelter are Steve Poirier, fourth and fifth respectively. Cook had also won is qualification just like Parent and Wickham. The 4 lap dash was won by Wickham who took advantage of the failure of Jeff Vandusen in the last lap to take the win.
Nicolas Vaillant takes the first spot in the 20 lap feature in the pro-stock class. A caution came out on lap 1, for an accident between Denis Gauvreau and Dave Bissonnette. On the restart, Vaillant kept is position, but on the fifth lap, Stéphane Lebrun gets by Vaillant after a good fight with him. A few laps later, Lebrun stops with problems with his car and loses the lead. Bissonnette took the first place, on the restart. The final laps of the feature, were really good because Bissonnette and Joey Ladouceur swapped the lead at many occasions an it is finally Bissonnette that won the feature over Ladouceur. Roch Aubin finishes third; Nicolas Vaillant and Denis Gauvreau completed the top 5. Gauvreau won the heat race.
In the Semi-Pro feature, 17 cars started when Stéphane Carrière grabbed the lead until lap 6 when the first four cars got tangled in turn 4. Bruno Boivin is now first. Boivin was able to protect is lead over some persistent moves from Bruno Richard and Sébastien Bigras to win the feature over Bigras. Both cars were disqualified during the technical inspection for illegal pieces in the engine. Daniel Guindon finished third, Marc Lalonde fourth and Richard Brady completed the top 5 in this great finale. Lalonde, Michel Hamelin and Boivin had won the heats.
In the 4 cylinders class, Jean-Marc Larose won is first feature of the year but had to work hard for it, when Gabriel Mercier gave him a hard time with numerous charges on him. Martin Bigras finishes in front of Martin Lagacé and Alexandre Pilon. Martin Bernand won the heat.
The speedway was really fast because of the showers received during the day. Another really good race program in all classes and a very entertaining firework before the start of the feature. Next Friday, another spectacular night when Benny the Bomb will be present along with the mini-sprints. A complete race program is also on the menu with the third leg of the series for Pro-stock and modified.
On a less positive note, we learned that Simone Belleau, the wife of promoter Serge Lagacé, died of a massive heart attack during the night of Thursday to Friday. It was a very emotional night for many of us. Our deepest sympathies to all the family in these difficult times. Simone was a very good person with everyone, she always smiled and we felt welcome at the speedway with her. Simone will be missed a lot by all of us.
Complete Results:
Pro-Stock (20 laps)
Dave Bissonnette, Joey Ladouceur, Roch Aubin, Nicolas Vaillant, Denis Gauvreau, Stéphane Lebrun, Nicolas Gauvreau, Steve Johnston
Semi-Pro (15 laps)
Bruno Boivin (DQ), Sébastien Bigras (DQ), Daniel Guindon, Marc Lalonde, Richard Brady, Benoit Dubois, Michel Hamelin, Bruno Richard, Alexandre Gagnon, Pascal Racette, Charles Galipeau, Dominic Gauvreau, Brian Rochon, John Bénard, Guy Régimbald, Stéphane Carrière, Mark Trudeau, Marc-André Duchesne
4 cylindres (12 laps)
Jean-Marc Larose, Gabriel Mercier, Martin Bigras, Martin Lagacé, Alexandre Pilon, Marco Raymond, Scott Dagenais, Danny Matte, Martin Bernard, Yannick Raymond
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